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Show HN: Gander, an Android file viewer that asks for no permissions

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Re: Show HN: Gander, an Android file viewer that asks for no permissions

#51

I don't understand the comments to this post. Don't people use firewalls anymore to limit internet access only to the apps really needing it?

I had the goal to eliminate annoying ads in some apps that I use. I deleted the user data for those apps and also applied restrictions so they could no longer access internet. Ads still showed up.

I mostly stopped using these types of apps and switched to F-Droid alternatives.

Re: Show HN: Gander, an Android file viewer that asks for no permissions

#52
post #26
post #4

This is interesting. I thought granting internet access to apps is not avoidable on Android. When an app does not request internet, is it really guaranteed that it cannot talk to the outside world? Or is it having other avenues like opening a browser or some other component with a custom url or something? Update: I just asked Gemini, and it does not look good: An Android app without the INTERNET permission is not gua…

> If two apps from the same developer share a User ID (sharedUserId), they run in the same process and share all permissions Good grief. What a huge vulnerability. Is there some benefit that justifies this?

Literally there for more protection. Split your app into different apps, each handling a component. Want a banking app, without access to registering your card for NFC payments ? Split the app.

sharedUserIds cannot be applied blindly, they need the app to be signed with the same key, both need to declare their sharedUserId to be the same, etc.

Re: Show HN: Gander, an Android file viewer that asks for no permissions

#53
post #6

Can you add odt, ods, etc support? I use libreoffice viewer but it would be nice to reduce the number of apps on my device.

ods actually already works.. it goes through the same SheetJS path as xlsx and csv. But your question made me check properly and there's a bug... I never registered the OpenDocument mime type so Gander wont show up in the "open with" list when you tap a .ods. Opening it from inside the app works fine.

Fixed in the manifest just now, it'll be in the next build.

odt and odp dont work at all. odt is a fair ask.. its the same shape of problem as docx so it's doable. Less sure about odp though.. the pptx renderer is already the weakest part of this.

And yeah, fewer apps on the phone was pretty much the whole reason I started building this.

Re: Show HN: Gander, an Android file viewer that asks for no permissions

#54

I don't understand the comments to this post. Don't people use firewalls anymore to limit internet access only to the apps really needing it?

Could you please recommend a comfortable personal firewall app for Android?

Re: Show HN: Gander, an Android file viewer that asks for no permissions

#56
Thanks for sharing. Could it be possible to add optional force-dark mode for documents as well? The feature list mentioned dark mode, but that's for app's own UI. The really awesome feature would be to be able to invert the document colors so that the document itself is shown in dark mode. Thanks.

Re: Show HN: Gander, an Android file viewer that asks for no permissions

#57

I don't understand the comments to this post. Don't people use firewalls anymore to limit internet access only to the apps really needing it?

Firewalls are already a pain for desktop OS. They are basically unusable on mobile for normal users.

Re: Show HN: Gander, an Android file viewer that asks for no permissions

#59

Great. You built an excellent tool to solve a real-world problem: being able to open files on the fly without granting internet access and without having to install 400 MB bloated suites that track everything.

Thanks, Claude
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